Johnnie visits the Library at Douglass College in New Brunswick NJ in the late 50's

Warren C. Fry: "Ah Ha!  Apparently Johnnie made some visits to the library at Douglass College in New Brunswick NJ in the late 50's.  Five years ago I was leafing through an old copy of 'Les Chants de Maldoror' at Douglass library and found some interesting marginalia on a page marked with a very old, pressed yellow alder (turnera ulmifolia).  The passage detailed Maldoror's coupling with a shark and the note, scrawled in a faded purple ink, read  "compare to Bruno Franklyn meeting of Ippolit Wheeden, Nov. 11 1925, Zurich".  I put in a request to see the old card check-out lists from the past three decades and found that the book was checked out from Oct 31, 1959 to Dec 2nd 1961 (!) by one A. Kaprow and a note scrawled in the same faded purple ink next to this entry read "con J.R."  Mystery solved!"

Johnnie Rodriguez selling Lucky Hats in Cala Regina, Italy (2009)

Bruno Chiarlone - Due anni fa in Sardegna, dalle parti di Cala Regina, c'era un uomo che gli somigliava. Vendeva sombreri e cappelli da cow boy. Ne comprai uno per poche decine di euro e il tizio che me lo aveva venduto mi disse che mi avrebbe portato fortuna. Allora lo misi sul capo e mio cognato mi fece una fotografia. La stessa foto l'ho poi pubblicata su vari miei libri e le vendite sono andate a gonfie vele: Devo ringraziare Jonny Rodriguez per questo?

Roughly translates as: Two years ago in Sardinia, from portions of Cala Regina, was a man who resembled him. Selling sombreros and cowboy hats. I bought [one] for a few euro and the guy who sold it to me told me that [it] would bring me luck. Then I put [it] on my head and my brother took a photograph of me with it on. The same photo, I then posted on several of my books, and sales have been booming: Johnnie Rodriguez I have to thank for this?

Lawrence Charles Miller:  Bruno - He tried the same thing with me. But. alas, my luck was different. I saw him in Rende, Calabria, my mother's hometown (my mother's maiden name is Rende). He knew this and thought I was rich - owned the town or something. Finally fled to get away from his constant selling of lucky charms.

Mark Bloch:  Now I see that Rodensky and Rodriguez were apparently both not only seen in Reggio di Calabria in the late 50s or early 60s but both sightings involving these episodes with photographers and hats. Rodesnksy was on the set of Federico Fellini's 1959 film "La Dolce Vita" and famously took a side trip to Calabria to visit his friend the hotel owner Coriolano Paparazzo where a number of photos with sombreros were taken. Rodrigues not only was also seen there but he also turned up in a photo buying sombreros from a Richard Mutt during the filming of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre in 1948 on location in the state of Durango, Mexico and was later spotted during the shooting of night street scenes in Tampico, although I learned since that the night scenes were all filmed back in the studio in California so I don't know what to beleive anymore. But interestingly, it was Rodensky's dear friend Coriolano for whom papparazzi are named.